/^(ip 


W.  A.  24. 


WAR  AND  MISSIONS 


An  Address  by 

TheVery  Rev.  H.G.  Robbins,  D.D. 


THE  WOMAN’S  AUXILIARY 
281  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York 


WAR  AND  MISSIONS^:^ 


By' the  Very  Reverend  Howard  C.  Robbins, 
D.D.,  Dean  of  the  Cathedral  of  Saint 
John  the  Divine,  New  York  City 

HESE  are  trying  times  for  people  who 


are  interested  in  missions.  There  are  all 


i  the  old  difficulties  and  discouragements 
to  face,  and  in  addition  there  are  a  number  of 
new  ones  occasioned  by  the  War.  But  that  is 
only  one  side  of  it.  On  the  other  side,  the 
War  has  given  new  incentives  to  missionary 
effort.  It  has  opened  to  us  new  missionary 
opportunities,  and  inspired  new  missionary 
hopes.  Taking  for  granted  your  interest  in 
missions,  I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  about  these 
new  conditions :  first  about  the  new  difficulties, 
and  then  about  the  new  incentives  and  hopes. 

One  difficulty  is  competition.  The  War  has 
brought  home  to  us  innumerable  needs  and 
claims.  War  relief  has  been  organized  upon 
the  most  colossal  scale  that  the  world  has  ever 
heard  of.  It  had  to  be,  to  meet  the  over¬ 
whelming  needs.  Everywhere  one  goes  one 
sees  people  knitting  sweaters,  or  preparing  sur¬ 
gical  dressings,  or  getting  up  bazaars  and  fairs 
to  obtain  funds  for  relief  work.  It  is  right 
that  this  should  be  so.  It  would  be  dreadful 
if  it  were  not  so  and  if  all  these  tragical  claims 
upon  our  compassion  and  our  helpfulness  were 
not  given  the  right  of  way.  But  in  giving 

*An  address  to  the  Woman’s  Auxiliary  of  the  Church  of 
ithe  Incarnation,  New  York,  St.  Andrew’s  Day,  1917. 


war  relief  the  right  of  way,  other  forms  of 
philanthropic  effort  are  being  subordinated, 
and  some  of  them  are  even  being  endangered. 
One  hears  everywhere  the  question  what  is  to 
become  of  this  or  that  beneficent  work,  now 
that  its  former  supporters  are  so  engrossed  in 
new  tasks. 

For  people  who  believe  in  missions,  as  you 
and  I  believe  in  missions,  the  answer  is  very 
simple.  Missions  are  a  part,  and  an  indis¬ 
pensable  part,  of  our  war  work.  They  are  as 
much  a  part  of  it  as  surgical  dressings,  or  mu¬ 
nition  manufacturer.  For  ideas,  as  well  as 
armies,  are  contending  in  this  gigantic  conflict. 
Essentially  and  fundamentally ,  this  zvar  is  a 
conflict  of  ideas.  What  are  its  objects,  as  we 
Americans  have  defined  them  in  our  thoughts 
and  purposes  ?  Liberty.  But  the  object  of  all 
missionary  endeavor  is  to  bring  to  men  the 
liberty  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  and  his  Gos¬ 
pel — Democracy.  But  the  Bible  is  the  text¬ 
book  of  democracy.  Every  great  political 
movement  looking  toward  the  emancipation  of 
the  common  people  and  their  establishment  in 
self-government  has  had  its  origin  in  the 
Christian  Scriptures,  either  directly,  as  in 
England  and  America,  or  indirectly,  as  in 
France,  through  recognition  of  the  principles 
which  found  their  first  expression  there. 

So  with  our  other  war  aims:  law,  justice, 
respect  for  the  weak,  and  the  vindication  of 
public  right.  Why,  they  are  the  political  ex¬ 
pression  of  missionary  enterprise !  There  is 
no  law,  no  justice,  no  respect  for  the  weak,  and 
no  vindication  of  public  right  which  is  not  ulti¬ 
mately  founded  on  belief  in  the  God  who  is 


the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  and  who  demands 
these  things  of  men  and  nations.  The  aims 
with  which  we  have  entered  the  War  are  pre¬ 
cisely  the  aims  which  Christianity,  and  Chris¬ 
tianity  alone,  can  make  secure  for  us  and  for 
others.  To  neglect  missionary  efforts  at  a 
time  like  this  would  be  to  throw  aside  the 
sword  of  the  spirit  in  what,  in  its  last  an¬ 
alysis,  is  essentially  a  spiritual  conflict.  It 
would  be  to  resort  to  the  crude  and  brutal  re¬ 
liance  upon  force  alone  which  has  led  to  the 
moral  bankruptcy  of  the  despotic  Power  which 
we  oppose. 

The  next  difficulty  is  a  good  deal  like  the 
first.  The  War  exacts  time  from  us  for  re¬ 
lief  work.  It  exacts  money  in  the  foim  of 
taxation.  We  are  just  beginning  to  learn  the 
meaning  of  taxation.  By  the  middle  of  next 
March  we  shall  know  a  good  deal  more  about 
it  than  we  do  now.  We  do  not  grudge  the 
money  that  is  being  required  of  us.  If  ever 
a  government  had  a  prior  lien  on  all  the  re¬ 
sources  of  its  citizens  our  Government  has  that 
right  now.  We  shall  give  all  that  is  required, 
and  we  shall  give  it  not  only  without  com¬ 
plaining,  but  with  profound  satisfaction  that 
we  are  able  in  this  way  to  forward  the  cause 
to  which  we  have  solemnly  dedicated  the  whole 
force  and  resourcefulness  of  our  national  ex¬ 
istence.  Still,  it  is  not  possible  to  pay  such 
taxes  without  finding  the  margin  available  for 
gifts  correspondingly  diminished.  What  is 
going  to  happen,  for  example,  to  the  appor¬ 
tionment  for  General  Missions?  That  is  a 
question  which  I  have  heard  raised  a  dozen 
times  within  the  last  ten  days. 


There  are  two  answers.  The  first  and  ob¬ 
vious  one  is  sacrifice.  Most  of  those  who  give 
largely  to  missions  live  in  a  very  comfortable 
way,  sometimes  even  in  a  luxurious  way.  The 
place  to  cut  down  first  is  in  that  scale  of  liv¬ 
ing,  not  in  the  support  given  to  the  brave 
men  and  women  who  represent  us  on  the  far- 
flung  battle  lines  of  Christ.  They  have  made 
their  sacrifices  for  the  Gospel.  It  is  time  now 
that  we  should  be  making  ours.  I  cannot 
believe  that  while  this  country  is  raising  and 
spending  money  in  billions  it  is  going  to  be 
impossible  to  raise  this  year  as  in  former  years 
the  pitifully  small  proportion  of  our  wealth 
which  has  hitherto  been  devoted  to  Christian 
missions.  In  England,  where  taxes  are  high¬ 
er  than  they  are  here,  and  where  the  cost  of 
living  is  higher  than  it  is  here,-  I  understand 
that  gifts  for  missions  have  not  only  not  fallen 
ofif,  but  actually  increased.  When  I  read 
that  item  of  news  in  a  missionary  review  I  felt 
that  I  had  just  had  news  of  a  great  British 
victory.  It  was  a  victory  of  the  finest  and 
highest  sort,  far  reaching  in  its  results.  But, 
like  all  other  victories  which  amount  to  any¬ 
thing  in  this  war,  it  was  won  by  sacrifice. 

There  is  also  another  supplementary  answer, 
and  that  is  intensive  cultivation  of  the  home 
field.  In  our  missionary  giving  in  the  past 
we  have  not  sufficiently  taken  into  account  the 
value  of  the  small  gifts  which  come  from 
numerous  givers  who  give  in  a  systematic  way. 
Now  this  is -a  field  which  is  capable  of  greatly 
increased  fruitfulness,  but  which  needs  to  be 
worked  up.  Experience  has  shown  that  it 


can  best  be  worked  up  by  the  every  member 
canvass  and  by  the  introduction  of  the  duplex 
envelope  system.  For  many  parishes  this  in¬ 
volves  a  radical  innovation,  but  the  present 
emergency  demands  and  justifies  the  innova¬ 
tion.  If  the  larger  gifts  are  going  to  be  some¬ 
what  reduced,  the  difference  ought  to  be  made 
up,  and  more  than  made  up,  by  a  great  in¬ 
crease  in  the  number  of.  small  but  regular 
weekly  gifts.  The  parishes,  as  well  as  their 
offerings,  will  be  greatly  strengthened  by  it  in 
the  end. 

I  come  now  to  the  greatest  difficulty,  the 
greatest  embarrassment  and  discouragement  of 
all.  That  is  the  War  itself.  Here  is  Chris¬ 
tian  Europe,  and  Christian  America,  engaged 
in  fratricidal  strife.  Here  is  war  in  its  stark 
horror  being  waged  between  nations  all  of 
which  have  received  the  Gospel,  all  of  which 
have  nominally  accepted  it,  and  all  of  which 
have  been  taught  to  regard  themselves  as 
brothers  in  the  one  family  of  God,  brothers, 
to  establish  whom  in  brotherhood  Christ  Jesus 
gave  His  life.  Here,  too,  are  war’s  fierce 
hatreds  and  intolerances.  They  are  not 
peculiar  to  any  people.  Thanks,  not  to  our 
superior  merit,  but  to  our  geographical  isola¬ 
tion,  we  are  freer  from  these  things  than  the 
other  belligerents  can  be,  yet  even  here  in 
America  we  witness  many  lapses  from  that 
spirit  of  Christian  chivalry  which  was  en¬ 
joined  upon  us  by  our  President.  “See  how 
these  Christians  love  one  another,”  was  a  true 
saying  once.  If  it  were  repeated  now,  it 
could  be  said  only  in  most  bitter  mockery. 
How  can  we  send  missionaries  to  spread 


abroad  the  Gospel  when  we,  who  have  enjoyed 
it  for  centuries,  have  made  so  little  use  of  it, 
and  have  been  governed  so  little  by  its  pre¬ 
cepts  that  all  Christendom  is  today  a  winepress 
trodden  by  the  wrath  of  God? 

The  answer  to  that  question  is  penitence. 
It  is  the  deep  note  justly  sounded  by  our 
War  Commission  which  called  upon  us  to 
enter  in  a  penitential  spirit  the  new  Church 
Year.  We  are  not  called  to  our  churches  to 
meditate  upon  Germany’s  ferocity,  or  Austria’s 
duplicity,  or  Turkish  cruelty,  or  Bulgarian  ra¬ 
pacity.  We  are  called  upon  to  come  in  peni¬ 
tence  to  confess  our  own  sins,  and  to  pray  to 
God  for .  forgiveness  for  public  and  for  per¬ 
sonal  transgressions  of  His  laws.  If  we  do 
that  in  any  deeply  sincere  way  we  shall  learn 
the  attitude  which  becomes  us  as  carriers  of 
the  Gospel.  We  cannot  go  in  any  loftiness, 
in  any  consciousness  of  superiority,  in  any 
Pharisaical  pride.  What  have  we  to  be  proud 
of?  We  must  go  humbly  to  those  who  have 
not  yet  known  Christ,  and  ask  them  to  look, 
not  upon  us,  but  upon  Him.  We  go  to  preach, 
not  ourselves,  but  Christ  crucified.  All  the 
sins  of  Christendom  have  been  committed  in 
spite  of  what  He  has  said  to  us.  Disobedience 
of  Him  has  had  exactly  the  consequences 
which  He  foretold.  He  told  us  that  to  hear 
His  words,  and  assent  to  them  and  then  not 
'  do  them,  is  perdition.  We  have  built  our 
western  civilization  upon  the  sands  of  worldly 
interests  and  ambitions,  and  the  rain  has  de¬ 
scended,  and  the  floods  have  risen,  and  the 
winds  have  blown,  and  it  has  fallen,  and  great 
has  been  its  fall. 


This  brings  us  to  the  new  hopes  and  new 
incentives.  When  penitence  is  real,  and  when 
it  is  thoroughgoing,  it  softens  and  opens  the 
heart  to  the  divine  grace.  God  can  use  the 
penitents  for  the  bringing  in  of  His  kingdom. 
He  can  use  them  because  they  let  Him  use 
them ;  they  do  not  oppose  to  His  will  and  pur¬ 
pose  the  obstacles  of  their  self-sufficiency  and 
pride.  It  is  a  new  world  which  will  confront 
us  after  the  war.  It  will  be  open  as  never 
before  to  new  influences.  Men  and  women 
will  no  longer  be  hide-bound  by  old  traditions. 
They  will  be  willing  to  try  things  which  they 
have  never  really  tried  before,  but  only  talked 
of  trying.  Young  men  will  be  coming  back 
from  the  War,  steeled  to  a  determination  from 
which  all  things  will  be  possible  if  the  Church 
of  Christ  makes  itself  ready  for  them,  ready 
to  use  them,  ready  to  use  for  Christ  their  stern 
young  realism,  with  its  scorn  of  compromise, 
of  temporizing  measures,  and  of  all  conven¬ 
tional  and  artificial  things. 

Then  will  come,  I  think,  the  greatest  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  Christian  missions  that  the  Church 
has  known  since  the  Day  of  Pentecost.  We 
ought  to  be  making  ready  for  it.  We  ought 
to  be  making  large  preparation  for  it.  When 
our  soldiers  come  home  to  us  let  it  be  to  a 
Church  which  has  found  itself  at  last,  which 
is  pulsing  with  generous  life,  which  is  glowing 
with  the  spirit  of  the  earliest  missionary  ages, 
the  belief  that  this  world  belongs  to  the 
Blessed  One  who  died  for  it,  and  that  by  the 
faithfulness  of  His  disciples  it  shall  be  won 
and  given  back  to  Him. 

Copies  of  this  leaflet  may  be  obtained  from  The  Woman's 
Auxiliary,  281  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York,  by  asking  for 
W.  A.  24. 

1  Ed.  1-18.  lOM.  Sch.  PI. 


